The present invention relates to a miter saw having a circular saw blade section pivotable about a first axis extending in a direction parallel with a rotation axis of the circular saw blade, and pivotally movable about a second axis extending horizontally and in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-254401 discloses a miter saw including a holder supporting a saw blade section having a circular saw blade. The saw blade section is pivotally movable toward and away from a base section about a first axis extending in a direction parallel with a rotation axis of the circular saw blade. The holder is pivotally movable about a holder shaft having a second axis extending horizontally along an upper surface of the base section and in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis. Thus, the saw blade section is tiltable leftward and rightward about the holder shaft.
A clamp lever also extends in parallel with the holder shaft and protrudes rearward from the holder. By the rotation of the clamp lever about its axis, a pivot posture of the holder relative to the base section is clamped or released.
With this structure, a user's hand must sneak around to the rear side of the holder in order to manipulate the clamp lever. If a wall or an object exists nearby the rear side of the holder, access to the clamp lever becomes impossible, thereby disabling the change in pivot posture of the holder. In other words, a space is required at a position behind the clamp lever when installing the miter saw for facilitating the access to the clamp lever.
Further, normally, the user is positioned in front of the base section during cutting operation. However, when changing the pivot posture of the holder, the user must hold the saw blade section. Therefore, the user must move to a position beside the miter saw so as to access to the clamp lever and to the saw blade section. This movement may lower the workability.
This drawback becomes apparent in case of a miter saw having a slide mechanism. That is, the holder support a bar extending in the second direction, and the saw blade section is pivotally movably supported on a support section disposed on the bar. In the latter case, if the saw blade section is at the frontmost position in the second direction, a distance between the front side of the saw blade section and the holder becomes increased. Therefore, the user must move to the lateral side of the miter saw from the front side by the increased distance. This degrades the workability.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-48029 discloses a miter saw in which an operation member for clamping and unclamping the pivot posture of the holder extends in parallel with the holder shaft and protrudes from the front side of the base section.
With this structure, pivot posture can be clamped or unclamped by the operation of the operation member at the front side of the base section. However, the operation member must span between the holder and the front side of the base section, thereby increasing a length of the operation member. This leads to an increase in weight and production cost. Due to the elongated length of the operation member, excessive rotation force must be imparted on the operation member for clamping the pivot posture. Accordingly, deformation may occur in the operation member. In order to avoid this problem, a diameter of the operation member must be increased, which in turn leads to increase in weight and production cost. Further, since the operation member spans over a wide range, a degree of design freedom must be limited in designing the miter saw.
In a miter saw where the base section includes a base and a turntable rotatably supported on the base through a rotation shaft, and the above-described slide mechanism is provided, the holder is pivotally movably supported to the turntable. In this case, mechanical interference between the elongated operation member and the rotation shaft of the turntable must be avoided. To this effect, a lateral width of the front side of the turntable must be increased to increase a total weight of the miter saw.